Comply or Fail! The 3 Cs of Policy Compliance You Need to Know

How wonderful would it be if you only had to tell someone something once?

Sadly, real life isn’t like that and this is especially true when it comes to the company policies in your business. The truth is that you can’t simply write expense management policies and pop them on a shelf, expecting them to be followed. No, if you want people to follow your policies when they submit expenses – and protect your business – you need to call on the three Cs of compliance: collaboration, comprehension and communication. 

We'll explore each of these areas in turn, but firstly, it's important to note that ensuring compliance has risen to the top of many finance leaders' agendas lately owing to new hybrid ways of working. How can you support employees with making the right spending decisions and following the rules while getting upfront visibility into planned spend? Let's take a look:

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1. Collaboration

If you are going to maximise the chances of your colleagues buying into your employee travel and expense (T&E) policies, you need to get their input from the start. Meet with your department heads to discuss your policies and business processes to find out whether they’re feasible, realistic and achievable – and whether they can be applied fairly across the board.

Set clear deadlines for acknowledgement and acceptance from your department heads – your T&E policies might be at the top of your to do list, but they won’t be at the top of theirs.

If you don’t have existing policies, you can use this expense policy template and this invoice policy template as a starting point.

2. Comprehension

There’s a tendency for the language around compliance to be dry, technical and jargon-heavy. While this might be fine for experts like you who encounter this type of language every day, it won’t be appealing – or even understandable – to anyone outside the finance team. And that makes it less likely to be followed.

Make sure your policies are easy to read and understand. Even more importantly, make sure they’re written in a way that is informative and intelligent not preachy and prescriptive – never has the adage ‘speak as you would be spoken to’ been more apt. Consider too the different ways people like to access information. Would some people take more away from watching a slideshow or listening to a recording? You should also ensure employees know who to reach out to if they have any questions.

3. Communication

The final step is to make sure your policies are communicated effectively and embedded in your company’s way of working. Make sure copies of your policies are easy to find and up to date at all times. From then on, you need to be thinking about what’s needed to turn the theory into practice. Formal training sessions and a strategy for onboarding new starters should be considered.

If not, you might think about setting deadlines for people to acknowledge the policies or having a quiz to check people have taken on board what’s required. And when everything is up and running, you could continue to motivate employees by recognising and rewarding those that follow the policies or recruiting the best employees to help coach those that consistently struggle.

…And Finally, Consider the Rewards

You may be responsible for compliance in your business but achieving it will involve a whole team effort. The best way to keep everyone on board is to remind them that compliance isn’t something that can be avoided, it’s something that needs to be embraced as a vital part of the ongoing success of the business. Because compliance isn’t a ‘nice to have’, it’s an essential for saving costs and the penalties for falling short are severe.

If you’re looking for more information, download How to Create an Expense Policy or How to Create a Supplier Invoice Policy.